Body-like coordination emerges in paired termite locomotion

Abstract

Coordinated group movements are often described as moving "like a single organism," yet this analogy is typically a metaphor. Individuals, interacting with each other, lack the functional integration of the body parts of a single organism. It remains unresolved whether movement coordination can truly reproduce body-like organization. Here we show that during tightly coordinated movement, pairs of termites use the same exploration-stabilization division of labor observed within a single moving body. Using posture tracking, we demonstrate that leader- follower asymmetries in tandem running mirror anterior-posterior asymmetries in individual locomotion, with exploratory motion concentrated at the front and smoother, shorter trajectories at the rear. Our mathematical model reveals that such body-like coordination emerges from hierarchical interactions between leaders and followers, described by the temporal convolution of past locational cues rather than instantaneous responses. These results identify a control principle of hierarchical structured movement coordination, providing a novel way to design collective behavior.